The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that children should get two shots of chicken pox vaccine instead of one because new research shows that the vaccine stops its effects over time. Many children who were given shots as a chicken pox vaccine in their young age are still seen to get infected by the chicken pox disease suggesting the vaccine can wear off with time.

However, this highly contagious disease has nearly became rarer with the advent of a new vaccine in 1995. According to a new study, only around 11,300 cases of chicken pox were detected over 10 years. Nearly 90 percent of the people who were victim to the disease had not been vaccinated

n influential government advisory panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, recommended on Wednesday that Americans 60 and older get vaccinated against shingles, an excruciatingly painful rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox.

Shingles, which is caused by the varicella zoster virus, is a blistering skin rash that is most common in older people. It usually goes away after four weeks, but one in five sufferers develops severe long-term nerve pain known as postherpetic neuralgia, whose complications can include scarring and loss of vision or hearing

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the licensing of Zostavax (Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ) on May 25. Zostavax is a new vaccine for shingles (also known as herpes zoster) to be given to people who are at least 60 years old.

The vaccine should reduce the risks of shingles, an illness that usually impacts 2 out of every 10 people, particularly the elderly. The shingles disease causes chronic pain